The Skinny on Weight Loss Drugs Who is Taking the New Class of Weight Loss Drugs? | Data Dive with PurpleLab

Meet PurpleLab! Russell Robbins is the Chief Information Officer and #TogetheRx we're launch a new podcast series! 

PurpleLab is a healthcare analytics company whose data platform, HealthNexus, holds one of the biggest medical and pharmaceutical claims databases in the US. 

It combines data from public and commercial HCPs, together with de-identified SDOH information (Social Determinant of Health) so users can have a complete view of the patient population in the US. 

Weight-loss:

PurpleLab’s dataset from October 2022 - October 2023 shows that 2.8M people had been prescribed and dispensed a semaglutide drug. 

PurpelLab's database shows who really is getting access to the drugs by looking into: 

States with most prescriptions (and zoom in on a Zip-3 level)

Men vs. Women prescription and dispense rates

Socioeconomics data of patients 

Race & Ethnicity

In terms of adolescents, issues regarding lifestyle & dietary choices have not changed much through the years, but the data does show that the underlying treatments available for underage patients have changed (mainly given to the FDA’s approval of Wegovy being used on these patients). 

Although HIPAA doesn’t allow the collection of SDOH factors for underage patients (12-17), PurpleLab’s data shows almost an even split between Medicaid and commercial providers prescribing weight loss drugs. This demystifies the popular idea that these drugs are only accessible to higher-income patients.

Learn more: 

https://purplelab.com/category/solution-sheets/